


Cold Snow, Warm Kisses

by Rushifa



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: M/M, Mild Angst, One-Shot, Snow, hunt for the dragon balls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 13:18:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8981320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rushifa/pseuds/Rushifa
Summary: Vegeta ventures into a frozen cave as he and Goku hunt for the Dragon Balls. A cute little wintery one-shot.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Working on a Big Project, but got inspired by all the Christmas fics. Not exactly Christmas-y, but at least seasonally appropriate, I think.

Vegeta tugged the collar of his jacket close around his neck, trying to fight the snow that was beginning to build up along the edge. He huffed into his cold hands, wishing he’d thought to grab gloves. Although who was he kidding? He’d been lucky enough to have the forethought to grab even the jacket before letting Kakarot drag him off to this godforesaken part of the world. 

“Are you almost done?” He barked, glancing up at where Goku was half buried in a mound of snow.

“I just can't….quite...reach,” Goku said, disappearing more into the snow. They were standing at the base of a large cliff, deep in the mountains, and the constant snow combined with the angle of the wind were contriving to get them both very covered.

Goku launched forward into the snow, groaning in frustration, and then shuffled backwards, snow collapsing around him. “Ugh! ‘Geta. Get over here, will you?”

“I believe this was your errand.”

“Don’t be like that. It’s some sort of cavern, but the opening’s too small…”

Vegeta huffed and crossed his arms. “And what are you implying?”

“Come on, I think you’ll fit.” Goku collapsed back in the snow, staring pathetically up at Vegeta. “Come on, I’m cold,” he whined. His hands, also gloveless, were blue and stiff, and although he had known full well where they were going (unlike Vegeta) he hadn’t even bothered with a coat.

Well, Vegeta couldn’t very well let the fool freeze to death.

“If I go down there, we will go back after this?”

“Well, there are still two more balls--”

“We’ve found five in one day. I think your ridiculous friends can take a turn.”

Goku sighed. “Alright, after this we stop for the day. I can even take us to Roshi’s island if we want to get warm.”

“If visiting those morons is your next plan, then the ball and you can freeze here for all I care.”

“Ah, ‘Geta, don’t be like that.” Goku rolled over in the snow, giving him a mischievous look. “I’ll take us to a hot springs. A private one.”

“Hmph. That’s better.” Vegeta shook snow off his shoulders, and pushed past Goku to the mound he’d been investigating. The snow had mostly fallen in when Goku exited, but there was still a small hole visible in the base of the cliff. Vegeta eyed it dubiously. “You’re positive we can’t just blast our way in?”

“Well, I guess it would be a good way of finding out how durable the Dragon Balls really are…”

“Fine,” Vegeta said. He hated it when Goku tried to act smart with him. He wormed his way down the snow, wedging himself in the hole carefully. His shoulders just fit, if he went at the right angle, but his jacket was too bulky. Vegeta threw it to the side, leaving himself in just a black t-shirt and dark jeans, and carefully inched his way into the hole. He didn’t like to think of how ridiculous he probably looked from outside.

There was a muffled snort behind him.

"Did you have some comment, Kakarot?" He barked.

"Just...enjoying the view."

"Do you want to do this?"

"No no, you're doing great."

Vegeta fumed, grumbling to himself about ungrateful, useless Saiyans. He hefted himself further, gripping the rock in front of him so that he was doing most of the work with his arms. The hole was really more of a tunnel, and the rocky walls bit into his sides. He winced, feeling a scrape along his abdomen, but kept on.

Abruptly the tunnel opened up, and he had to pull himself into a much larger space. With a last heft, he freed himself from the hole...and found himself in free fall.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t been completely dark, or if he’d expected the sudden fall, but instead there was just the overwhelming feeling of vertigo, the panicked rush of cave walls scrapping him as he fell, and the sharp pain when he landed.

“Oof,” Vegeta groaned. He was wedged in between some rocks, and it felt like his whole body had been through a shredder. What an utter inconvenience. Damn that Kakarot and his ridiculous adventures.

Vegeta opened one eye, but the darkness remained. He shifted until he was in something of a sitting position. He wasn’t sure how far he’d fallen, but there didn’t seem to be any light coming in from the hole, however far up it was.

“‘Geta?” He heard, faintly echoing down the walls.

“Yes, I’m down here,” he growled.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m excellent,” Vegeta said, his voice taking on more of a snarl. He focused his energy into one hand, generating a small glowing orb that lightly stung his skin. It helped illuminate the area directly around him, but it was almost less helpful than the complete darkness had been. He could see himself, yes, but the glare from the light made everything outside his little bubble into a blind void. It reminded him vaguely of his old space pod; a tight little sphere, with the darkness of space around him. It was an unwelcome memory.

He extinguished the orb. The darkness was less distracting, anyway.

By feel, he untangled himself from the rocks, and got to a standing position, one hand on the rough wall, the other inspecting the wound on his stomach. His hand came away wet, but there wasn’t much pain, so the injury couldn’t be too severe.

The next step was to find that blasted dragon ball. Thankfully he hadn’t let Kakarot carry the radar, and it was still in his pocket. The ball seemed to be close, but the radar sometimes had difficulty with very precise distances. It _had_ looked like they were right on top of it, but maybe they'd just been _above_ it.

His eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness, but there really wasn’t a whole lot of change to be had. This deep in the rock, the darkness was nearly complete, but he could at least make out vague shapes now. The rocks around him, and the uneven wall under his hand. To his left, the darkness seemed...deeper. He guessed that was an opening.

Sure enough, when he extended a hand, there was definitely free air in that direction. He sent out a very weak shot of ki. It lit up the room in an arc--a long corridor branching off of the circular room he’d fallen into--and collided with a far, curving wall. He glanced up once, as if expecting to see Kakarot’s stupid face peering at him somehow from the darkness above, and then made his way following the afterimage of his blast.

The ground was surprisingly flat. He only stumbled a few times, but his hand on the wall quickly steadied him, and he kept going. Weirdly, he found himself missing his tail. That still happened sometimes; a strange, phantom sense, like a missing limb. His balance still sometimes suffered for it, although he’d learned to compensate years ago.

After a time, the corridor opened into a much larger cave. Vegeta could tell by the shift in the air. It went from feeling cramped and stale to open and breezy. This time, when he sent a ki blast out, it illuminated only darkness on either side of it, and it petered out before it met any wall.

Vegeta dragged out the Dragon Radar. Sure enough, it was pointing him straight into the void.

Nothing for it, then. He raised a ball of ki high, to cast as large a circle of light around him as possible, and struck out from the wall.

This was very eerie. The quality of the air led him to believe it was a very large room, but in his little circle of light, he felt confined.

Although the lack of wind did make this cave somewhat better than the outside had been, the coldness here was heavy around him, and he could feel it seeping into his bones. Kakarot had better not have been lying about that hot springs.

After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes, the radar beeped at him, indicating that the ball was close. In fact, if the radar was to be believed, he should have been right on top of it. Vegeta inspected the ground, but it was flat and unmarked. There was no sign of a hole or crevice that the ball could have fallen into. He frowned. Was it possibly even further down? How far into this mountain would they have to go?

But, no, if they’d been above it before...maybe he was under it, this time.

Vegeta looked up into the darkness. He couldn’t see above him any more than he could see around him, but there had to be a top up there, somewhere. Keeping his orb high, he slowly floated upwards. Sure enough, after only a few seconds, he had to pull up short to avoid scratching his upheld hand on the ceiling.

The ceiling was made up of exposed, interlocking roots. He must be relatively near to the surface at this point. As first there wasn’t much to see, but as he prodded on, the light caught on something orange deep within a tangle of roots.

“There you are,” Vegeta growled, digging his hand in further. It was too hard to maneuver with one hand, so he let the orb dissipate, and let his fingers find the ball without the help of his eyes.

The roots were mixed with dirt and rock, and he had a feeling his hands would come away bloody, but he ignored the tiny pinpricks. Finally, he began pulling at the roots in frustration, and the ball slipped into his hands. It almost dropped right past him, but he managed to grab it before it could crash to the ground.

Vegeta was about to fire off a few weak ki blasts to light his way back down, when suddenly, the mountain began to shake.

He was prepared for the free fall this time, and he landed on his feet, his bent legs absorbing most of the impact harmlessly. Stalactites, freed from their hold on the ceiling, rained around him with bits of root and debris. He swore, rolling out of the way instinctively. His shoulder hit a wall, and he curled into it, protecting the dragon ball in his hand.

A blast sounded from far away, and the ground shook under him. Vegeta swore, powering up enough that the small debris bounded harmlessly off of him.

More blasts followed, echoing through the cave, and Vegeta was reminded of a different time, a different place. Battle sounds in the distance, the smell of blood around him. He crouched, taking on a defensive stance, blasting any large bits of rubble that came into his limited vision.

Suddenly, the wall to his right exploded outwards, scattering sharp slabs of rock.

“Vegeta!” Goku said. He held a ki blast high to light his face, and the light was almost blinding after the total darkness.

“Kakarot?” Vegeta said, still in his crouch, as more dark shapes rained around them. “What the hell are you--was that YOU?"

“You didn’t answer me!” 

“SO YOU DECIDED TO BURY ME IN AN AVALANCHE?”

“Well, I know you don’t like caves, and you’d been down here awhile…” Goku was close to him now, annoyingly close, and seemed unperturbed by the rumbling around them and the falling chunks of stone.

“You idiot. Are you trying to bring the whole mountain down?”

“Of course not, that’s silly.”

A large chunk of rock crashed behind them, and Vegeta had a flash memory, the cave around him subtly shifting into a different cave, a different place, before the world righted itself again.

“You ok?” Goku said, his arm on his shoulder now.

“You’re going to bury us in a cave-in and you’re asking if I’m ok?!”

Goku’s concerned frown was visible even in the low light from his ki, and it was the last thing Vegeta saw, as Goku raised two fingers to his forehead, and the cave dissolved around them.

***

They were lying in the snow. Vegeta didn’t even realize he’d been breathing shallowly until the air was back in his lungs, cold and biting. But somehow the cold wasn’t bothering him. Warm arms were around him, fighting off the cold nip of the wind.

“I’m sorry, ‘Geta,” Goku said, strong arms pulling him closer to a muscular chest. “I shouldn’t have made you go into that cave.”

“It was perfectly fine until you decided to bring the mountain down,” Vegeta grumbled, but he didn’t pull away from the embrace. After the cave, it was warm and welcome.

A gentle mouth found his neck, and started working its way up to his chin, with gentle kisses and nips. “You ready for that hot springs?” Goku asked.

“Definitely.”


End file.
